12-Year-Old Yu Zidi Advances to Final of 200 Individual Medley at World Championships
The spotlight for Monday night’s final of the 200-meter individual medley will undoubtedly shine on Canadian star Summer McIntosh. The 18-year-old captured her first gold medal of the World Championships on Sunday, when she comfortably prevailed in the 400 freestyle. Later in the session, McIntosh earned the top seed for the final of the 200 IM, on the strength of a semifinal clocking of 2:07.39.
While McIntosh will occupy Lane Four in the final, keep an eye on the athlete in Lane One.
During the semifinals of the 200 medley, 12-year-old Yu Zidi recorded the seventh-fastest time to qualify for the medals race. The Chinese youngster produced a career-best time of 2:10.22 and became the youngest athlete in World Champs history to qualify for a final. She went through the opening butterfly leg in 28.02 and split 33.23 for her backstroke leg. Following a breaststroke mark of 38.90, she closed with a freestyle split of 30.07.
Heading into the World Champs, the 200 individual medley was viewed as Yu’s No. 3 event for the meet, behind her upcoming appearances in the 200 butterfly and the 400 IM. An all likelihood, Yu will have to cut at least a second from her personal best to contend for the podium, but her performance in the shorter medley certainly bodes well for her other two events. Yu is also likely to see action in the 800 freestyle relay.
If Yu can medal in one of her three individual events, she will match an age record that was achieved 89 years ago. At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Denmark’s Inge Sorensen earned the bronze medal in the 200 breaststroke less than a month after turning 12 years old. Sorensen is the youngest swimmer to earn a medal in a global competition, and while Yu would be a few months older than the Dane, medaling at Worlds as a 12-year-old would be downright stunning.
